Scout Blog

On Sat., Feb.07 2015 the 3rd Ottawa Scouts entered in the annual Heritage Area Klondike Derby which took place at Lac Beauchamp, QC this year.

This event is in its 51st year, with over 20 challenges ranging from hill traverse and fire skills to physical challenges like the infamous gully crossing. Success demands a high level of teamwork and cooperation.

We are proud to say that our team of Scouts, a mix of first, second & third year scouts competing as “mongoose patrol” won FIRST PLACE in their category for the event! (Intermediate Category) Congratulations Scouts on a great effort and fantastic result.

3rd Ottawa Venturers supported the event this year, serving 70 litres of hot chocolate at morning & afternoon stations, paying back for their past years of lounging at the HC station.

3rd Ottawa Scouts enjoyed a brisk winter camp Jan 16-19, 2015. With the temperature plunging to -30 Saturday AM, it was one of our coldest winter camps to date. We had to scrounge a bit to find enough snow for our quinzees, but they set up solidly!

With the colder weather, a bit more energy was spent staying warm, but we managed to get in a spectacular star hike with the milky way clearly visible (no moon), some stories around the campfire, and a bit of tobogganing too.

On October 06 (a breezy fall night) 3rd Ottawa Scouts hiked down to an investiture ceremony on Westboro beach. Members of the 003 Venturer company provided some ambiance with a beachside fire (well contained of course…we are the good guys). New members of the troop sweated over recitation of the Motto, Law and Promise

On Sat., Feb.08 2014 the 3rd Ottawa Scouts entered in the annual Heritage Area Klondike Derby which took place at Wakefield, QC this year.
This event is in it’s 50th year, with over 20 challenges ranging from hill traverse and fire skills to physical challenges like the infamous gully crossing. Success demands a high level of teamwork and cooperation.

We are proud to say that our team of Scouts, a mix of first, second & third year scouts competing as “cougar patrol” won FIRST PLACE in their category for the event! Congratulations Scouts on a great effort and fantastic result.

Like the previous couple of years we held this camp at the beautiful facilities at Gracefield. We headed out in the morning of January 17 and were setting up tents and piling snow for Quinzees by noon.
Saturday morning was beautiful and after a satisfying boiling-bag meal we excavated our Quinzees.Check out some video
Some of the scouts had a chat with coyotes
In the afternoon we hiked up to the look-out (through some pretty deep snow) and did some compass work
In the evening we had some stories and songs around the campfire under the starry sky
..before sleeping snug in our Quinzees
It was the first winter camp experience for 8 youth & 2 Scouters and all of us slept in Quinzees
Sunday morning saw us packing up, after working hard to bring down our Quinzees and working on a fire-lighting challenge.
Here are some more pictures (click to advance)

Having a troop summer camp used to be a standard practice for Scouting. Over the last few years our troop has been having 5 camps spread through the scouting year with a three day camp in June. This year we have decided to trim back one of our regular camps to allow for a week long camp at the start of summer….

Haliburton Scout Reserve (HSR) is one of the largest semi-wilderness Scouts Canada camps in Ontario with almost 5000 acres of forest and lakes. With most camp sites only accessible by boat, HSR offers a unique camping environment.

The camp has an on-site doctor, nurse and medical facilities that are open 24-hours, a grocery store and a souvenir shop.

Belonging to Scouts Canada, Greater Toronto Council, HSR is located just south of Algonquin park.

Like the previous couple of years we held this camp at the beautiful facilities at Gracefield. We headed out in the morning of January 25 and were setting up tents and piling snow for Quinzees by noon.
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Saturday morning was beautiful and after a satisfying boiling-bag meal we excavated our Quinzees. In the afternoon we rolled across the lake..Well some of us anyways!

In the evening we had some stories around the campfire and a night hike under the starry sky, before sleeping snug in our Quinzees

On Sat., Feb.09 2013 the 3rd Ottawa Scouts entered in the annual Heritage Area Klondike Derby which took place at Wakefield, QC this year.

This event in it’s 49th year, with over 20 challenges ranging from compass and fire skills to physical challenges like the infamous gully crossing demands a high level of teamwork and cooperation.

We are proud to say that our team of Scouts, a mix of first, second & third year scouts competing as “cougar patrol” won FIRST PLACE in their category for the event! Indeed they finished with 186 points, just half a point back of the overall trophy winners. Congratulations Scouts on a great effort and fantastic result.

Established in the late 1800’s the arboretum is home to many different varieties of both native and non-native species. An ideal spot for Scouts to work on their tree Identification Skills. If you ever want to know what trees are where in the arboretum, some meticulous soul has mapped the locations of all the different trees! After some tree-ID we worked on our compass skills, as well as estimating distances.

After a quick lunch we headed over Hartwell’s lock and up the Rideau canal to Hog’s Back Falls

We ended the day with a hike down through Vincent Massey park to catch the O-train at Confederation station, a quick train and bus connection to Dominion station, and a hike back to the church, still mostly dry!

3rd Ottawa Adventures

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Scouts Canada, the country's leading youth organization, offers challenging programs for boys, girls and youth age 5 to 26 in nearly 4,500 individual groups in most cities and towns across Canada. Over 100,000 young people enjoy Scouts Canada's programs, which are provided by 30,000 caring and dedicated volunteers. Scouts Canada's national office is located in Ottawa. To visit the national Scouts Canada website, click on the image of their website below.